The International Whaling Commission's annual meeting has passed a resolution condemning Japan's scientific hunting programme in the Antarctic.

Japan catches nearly 1,000 whales there each year in the name of research.

After an acrimonious debate, a large number of countries refused to vote, saying the resolution was illegitimate.

There was, however, consensus support for a motion censuring environmental groups which try to hinder Japan's Antarctic programme.

Both Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have tried to block the programme in recent years, culminating in a damaging collision between Japanese and Sea Shepherd vessels in the recent Antarctic season for which each party blames the other.

It was just about the only sign of common ground in a day marked by the entrenched positions and political posturing which has bedevilled this organisation for years.

'Stain on the commission'

Any International Whaling Commission (IWC) member is entitled to hunt whales for scientific research, but anti-whaling countries view the size and scope of Japan's programmes in the Antarctic and north Pacific as going far beyond what was envisaged when the IWC's constitution, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, was drawn up in 1946.

Resolutions calling for a halt have materialised regularly.

Japan is not obliged to comply with the IWC vote

"Every scientific catch is a stain on the record of this commission," said Monaco's whaling commissioner Frederic Briand.

"The best thing Japan could do is to reduce the size of its scientific whaling programmes around the world."

The IWC's scientific committee recently reviewed Japan's Antarctic programme, and New Zealand's conservation minister Chris Carter was not too impressed with their conclusions.

Japanese hunters "killed 7,000 whales over 18 years, and couldn't even decide how many whales there are," he fumed.

This was in marked contrast to the St Kitts commissioner Cedric Liburd, who said: "This research provided significant data enabling us to understand the structure and abundance of whale populations.

The resolution, which says that member governments "do not condone, and in fact condemn, any actions that are a risk to human life and property in relation to the activities of vessels at sea," passed by consensus.